I have had the opportunity to watch several movies on my list since my last posting, but I’ve decided to just talk about a couple of them. The first movie, Tampopo, was actually recommended to me by a patron several weeks ago, and then I discovered that it was on my list as well, so I made that a priority. The second movie, Under the Shadow, was an Iranian suspense/terror film that I had been eyeing on Amazon for a bit now. And third was Straight Outta Compton, a film which I had no expectations for. All three of these movies surprised me.
Tampopo is a Japanese film classified as a “spaghetti western”. Never having heard of that term, or understanding exactly what it meant, Tampopo ended up delighting me in the best possible way. It is a western in the sense that there are some “face-offs” between two characters in the film, and the main male protagonist is a cowboy in a sort of a way, but he drives a truck, not a horse. However, this movie is mainly about food, more specifically about a housewife’s dream to cook the best bowl of ramen ever. Goro, the cowboy, decides to help Tampopo, the housewife, achieve her dream by teaching her about the soul of ramen. It was a charming film about food and following your dream.
Under the Shadow was a film that I had added to my watchlist because I love horror/thriller movies and have come to love foreign films as well. Under the Shadow was unique in that it had a very long build up to the climax of the film, but wonderful in that the build-up didn’t feel so long. A mother and daughter are living in Tehran during the war, and the daughter discovers that something has begun to haunt their home. The relationship between the mother and daughter is strained as they try to deal with both the nightmare of war and the horror of their house. I was fairly impressed with this movie, and definitely felt it was worth watching.
Finally, Straight Outta Compton. It was interesting talking to people before watching this movie, because I got a variety of reactions, ranging from “That was a great movie!” to “Really, you’re checking that out?”. Because of this, I decided to watch it with an open mind. Again, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. While there was a lot of drama as the main group began to split up, I enjoyed learning about how Hip Hop music was influenced by the existing culture and social atmosphere of the time period. In addition, I thought the actors did a very good job in their portrayals of a very real story.
As always, feel free to leave comments or suggestions for next week’s post. Follow along in your own list at https://letterboxd.com/peterstanley/list/1001-movies-you-must-see-before-you-die/ .
0 Comments.